Knob assembly



Patented May 29, 1941 UNETEE STATEd 7 Claims.

The invention relates to a knob assembly of the type comprising a shank with a knob at opposite ends thereof and means for adjusting the knobs relative to each other on the shank to accommodate the door therebetween.

Devices of this type are usually constructed to provide variations in the operative length of the spindle connecting the knobs, so as to accommodate the assembly to doors of varying thicknesses. At best, in the known devices there is offered only a crude adjustment, and, unless the door thickness happens to be just right for some one of the pre-set points of adjustments, the assembly will rattle more or less in its mounting on the door. Even in those cases where the mounting of the assembly originally is just right, that is, with a permissible freedom of rotation of the assembly without rattle or looseness of play, in time this ideal condition is lost due to numerous causes, such as, shrinking of the wood in the case where the assembly is mounted on a wooden door, or, due to the wearing of relatively moving parts, too much play subsequently develops.

The primary object of the invention is to provide a form of adjustable knob assembly by means of which the knobs can be quickly drawn together until there is a snug and even a too-tight binding between the knobs and the door or a binding which may even resist any rotation of the knob assembly, and then by a minute, or an infinitesimal backing 01f of one of the knobs from this extreme limiting position, any desired degree or refinement of freedom of rotation may be obtained without going to the other extreme of having a too-loose mounting such as characterizes present known forms of such devices.

Another object of the invention is to provide a form of adjustment between one of the knobs and the spindle which adjustment is easily accessible without dismounting any part of the assembly and which adjustment can be readily attained by unskilled labor, and without the use of tools, except a coin or screw driver and which will provide for the micrometrical adjustment of the associated knob on the spindle as herein featured.

Broadly, the invention contemplates the use of a nut carried by one of the knobs, and which nut turns on a threaded portion of the shank and in which, preferably, extremely fine threads are used so as to provide a slow or small feed of the nut along the shank per complete turn of the nut and a means for locking the nut in any minute angle of rotation in which it may be set incidentally to the advancing and backing off of the handle from the limiting snug door engaged position above disclosed.

Various other objects and advantages of the invention will be in part obvious from an inspection of the accompanying drawing and in part will be more fully set forth in the following particular description of one form of knob assembly embodying the invention, and the invention also consists in certain new and novel features of construction and combination of parts hereinafter set forth and claimed.

In the accompanying drawing:

Fig. 1 shows in vertical section of a portion of a door and lock showing installed therein, a knob assembly constituting a preferred embodiment of the invention and shown partly in axial section;

Fig. 2 is a view in end elevation of the right hand knob of Fig. l; and

Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view taken on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1 looking in the direction indicated by the arrows.

In the drawing and referring first to Fig. 1, there is shown a door A in which is mounted a lock 13 and which door has on opposite sides thereof the usual face plates C and D. Extending through the door lock and face plates is the square portion of a shank of a door knob assembly to one end of which shank is rigidly mounted a knob H and on the other end is slidably mounted a knob l2. Knob :2, due to its hollow construction, will be referred to hereinafter sometimes as a knob shell.

For convenience of construction, the knob shell 12 is formed of two parts l3 and M, conventionally brazed together after the nut, hereinafter described, has been assembled in place, The inner part it is provided with a neck !5 in which is fitted a sleeve 98, the bore of which is square or otherwise non-circular in cross section so as to be slidably, but not rotatively, mounted upon the square portion of the shank Ii]. To this extent, the showing is of conventional design.

The shank is provided at its right end with a threaded extension i7 intruded axially into a cylindrical spring barrel I8 forming an inward ex tension from the center of the outer face l9 out of the outer shell part M. A long nut 20 is provided axially thereof with a bore El in threaded engagement with the threads on the extension ll of the shank. The nut is provided at its outer exposed end with a screw head 22 provided with a kerf 23 by means of which the nut may be engaged by a screw driver or even a coin to advance, or retreat, the nut on the spindle extension. The rear or inner end of the nut is provided with an outstanding flange or head 24 secured thereto as by braising and facing an inturned annular flange 25 defining the inner end of the barrel [8. The abutting faces of the head 24 and flange 25 are provided with a large number, materially greater than four, of radially disposed teeth 26. There is thus formed a crown-head type of two way clutch ratchet to lock the nut to the shell knob.

It is a feature of this disclosure that these teeth are as closely positioned radially as is possible to locate them within the practical limits of a device of this kind. The teeth of each clutch element are sharply V-shape in cross section. In one practical embodiment of the invention, sixty teeth were on the nut, so that in this form the succeeding teeth were radially spaced about six degrees (6) apart, A coiled spring 21 is located between the head 22 and the flange 25 normally tending to maintain the side face clutch thus formed by the teeth on the nut head 24 and, on the annular flange 25 in locked position to resist accidental rotation of the nut relative to both the shank and knob 52.

In operation and assuming the lock B and face plates C and D to be properly located on the door A, the shank H) with knob H attached, but with knob 12 removed, is inserted through the door and lock until the knob II is advanced as far as possible into firm engagement with the face plate C. Knob i2 is then located on the exposed right end of the spindle as shown in Fig. 1 until the threaded portion I1 is received in the bore 2i of the nut. Then, by means of a screw driver or similar tool engaging in kerf 23, the nut is rotated on the threaded extension ll while the operator holds the spindle from rotat ing by holding knob l2 from rotating. As the nut is advanced from right to left of the showing in Fig. 1, it will react through the spring 21 and flange 25 to advance the knob l2 as a whole until the neck l thereof engages firmly and snugly against the face plate D. Continued rotation of the nut beyond this initial contact between knob 12 and plate D will react through the spindle to take up any slack or clearance be tween the knob l i and its associated face plate C In practice, the nut will be advanced inwardly as far as possible, that is, until the nut cannot be turned any further, at which point the knobs are engaging through the associated face plates so snugly as to defeat or, at least resist, rotation of the knobs due to the frictional engagement between the ends of the necks and their associated face plates. This is a too-snug engagement as it is, of course, required that the knobs be rotated by manual action without too much resistance to such rotary movement.

\Vith the knob l2 thus advanced to its limiting position towards the door, the operator then re rotates the nut in the opposite direction over the slightest possible angle which will release the binding engagement of the knobs with their respective face plates. In the event that this backing oif movement of the nut be carried too far, that is, where there is a looseness of parts after the knob assembly has been in use for awhile, the nut is again advanced into the limiting position suggested and again backed away from this limiting position for a less degree of angular rotation. In those cases where the pitch of the threads on the extension II is small, the nut advance, even if it were turned over a complete revolution from its snug position, would mean only a slight axial retreat of the nut, but, in the case above suggested there is provided an automatic locking of the nut at each 6 of angular turn, and it may be said practically that the knobs can be set at any desired spacing from their associated face plates. As soon as axial pressure of the screw driver or similar tool is removed from the nut, the associated clutch faces automatically re-engage by virtue of the action of the spring and the spacing of the knobs apart is fixed until the wearing of the parts or other conditions necessitate a resetting of the knob assembly. It is, of course, theoretically possible that the threads of the clutch faces meet exactly edge to edge but, if one of the clutch faces contains one more tooth than the other clutch face, this possibility is avoided; and, in any case, as the teeth of one clutch endeavors to seat in the troughs of the other clutch, the clutches will interengage automatically with a slight, practically imperceptible, relative rotation and the spring will act to resist any further rotative movement of the nut on the threaded extension of the shank.

While there have been shown, described and pointed out in the annexed claims, certain novel features of the invention, it will be understood that various omissions, substitutions and changes in the form and details of the device illustrated and in its operation may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention I claim:

1. In a knob assembly, the combination of a knob shell provided with a non-circular bore at its inner side and with aspring barrel at its outer side, the spring barrel provided at its inner end with an annular toothed rack provided with a large number, materially greater than four, of radially extending teeth, a shank having a noncircular portion fitted in the non-circular bore to turn with the knob and having a threaded extension projecting axially into the barrel, a nut in threaded engagement with the threads on the extension, having a head at its outer end slidably and rotatably mounted in the barrel and provided at its inner end with an outstanding flange having an annular toothed rack on its outer side for engaging the rack on the barrel, and a spring in the barrel reacting between the barrel and head tending to maintain the racks in interengaged relation and thus normally tending to resist accidental rotation of the nut, the exposed sideof the nut head provided with a screw driver kerf whereby a screw driver engaging in said kerf can rotate the nut in either direction feeding the same along the threaded extension of the shank against the tending of the spring to resist accidental relative rotation of the racks.

2.'A knob assembly comprising a knob and a shank, the knob provided on its rear side with a non-circular bore, a non-circular portion of the shank fitted therein to turn therewith, a nut carried by the front side of the knob and in threaded engagement with the shank, a crownhead form of two-way ratchet between the nut and knob and a spring reacting at all times between the nut and knob tending to hold the teeth of the ratchet in interengagement to prevent accidental rotation of the nut on the shank in all rotative positions in which the nut may be either advanced or backed on the shank and said nut exposed at the front of the knob in position to be engaged and arranged to be shifted axially to release the ratchet against the resistance of said spring and to permit of a rotation of the nut in 2,242,sce

order to provide for a resetting of the teeth of the ratchet when the nut has been rotated on the shank to a desired position.

3. In a knob assembly, the combination of a shank having at one end an externally threaded portion, a hollow knob axially slidable but not rotatable on the shank, whereby the shank may be held from rotating by holding the knob from rotating, said knob having an opening and a spring barrel both in axial alignment with the shank, a nut in threaded engagement with the threaded portion of the shank and having a head guided in the spring barrel, exposed through the opening by means of which the nut may be rotated to adjust the same axially on the shank, said nut and barrel provided with coacting elements forming a multiple tooth side face clutch and a spring reacting between the nut head and knob barrel tending to maintain the clutch in operative clutching condition in all positions in which the nut may be located rotatively on the shank while the shank is being held from rotating by the holding of the knob.

4. In a knob assem ly, the combination of a shank having a non-circular and a threaded portion, a knob having a non-circular socket engaging the non-circular portion of the shank for permitting adjustment of the knob on the shank axially and said knob providing a holding means by which the shank may be held from rotating while the knob is being adjusted on the shank, a clutch having one of its elements in threaded engagement with the threaded portion of the shank and the co-acting clutch element being fixed on the shell, a spring at all times tending normally to maintain said elements in their operative clutching positions while permitting the elements to rotate relative to each other while the first named element is being rotatively adjusted on the shank, and said first named clutch element being exposed through the knob to permit said element being rotatively advanced in one direction along the shank to move the knob up to a limiting position and then permitting said clutch element to be backed slightly from said advanced position.

5. In a device of the class described, the combination of means providing a limiting stop; a shank extending through said means, axially fixed relative thereto and provided with a noncircular portion and with a threaded portion, a hollow knob shell provided on its rear side with a neck having a non-circular bore in which is received the non-circular portion of the shank, a nut rotatably mounted on the front side of the knob shell and in threaded engagement with the threaded portion of the shank, said nut having an exposed part by means of which it can be rotated, means forming a multiple toothed ratchet between the nut and knob shell, and a spring tending to maintain the elements of the ratchet in clutching relation, whereby the shank may be held from rotating by holding the shell while the nut is being rotated in one direction to advance it and with it the shell until the neck firmly abuts the stop and thereafter by a slight rotation of the nut in the reverse direction over a fraction of a turn, the binding engagement of I the neck against the stop may be released slightly to permit a working freedom of rotation of the knob shell and shank while avoiding any rattle between the knob and stop.

6. In a device of the class described, the combination of means providing a stop, a shank extending therethrough and provided with a threaded part, a knob axially slidable but not rotatably mounted on the shank, a nut threaded to the threaded part of the shank and accessible from the exterior of the knob to advance the nut and shell into firm engagement with the stop when the nut is rotated in one direction and to withdraw the shell from the stop when the nut is rotated slightly in the reverse direction, and spring pressed clutching means between the nut and knob for holding the nut relative to the knob, said clutching means being of the side face toothed type in which the teeth of both of the co-acting elements of the clutch are radially disposed, are V-shaped in cross section, and the teeth of each element are spaced apart radial distances of the order of six degrees (6).

7. In a device of the class described, the combination of a door, a knob assembly including a shank extending loosely through the door and having a knob on opposite ends thereof, each knob being normally in a light but non-pressing engagement with the door, and manually adjustable means, including two axially adjustable parts in threaded relation coacting between one of the knobs and the shank and operable on the rotation of the threaded parts in one direction for drawing the two knobs towards each other until there is a snug and even a too-tight binding between the knobs and the door, and said adjustable means being operable on a slight rotation of the threaded parts in the opposite rotary direction to back off said knob from said tootight position to obtain said light but non-pressing engagement, and constantly acting means between said knob and said adjusting means for securing said threaded parts from accidental relative movement thereby automatically to maintain said knobs in their normal positions adjusted relative to the door as preset by said backing oil of the said knob.

OSKAR KOZLOVSKIS. 

